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Supporters of the Boudin recall, Proposition H. The recall brought together hundreds of volunteers, … [+]<\/span> and a broad-based worker-business coalition.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/fbs-accordion>Leanna Louie<\/small> (The worker-business coalition that toppled Chesa Boudin last week is a model for other communities. It succeeded in taking action against a failed ideology, and in bringing together a multi-racial working class and middle class constituency<\/em>.)<\/p>\n A report issued last Friday showed office occupancy in San Francisco\u2019s core business district down to 26.4% of the pre-pandemic occupancy level<\/a>, with a high number of vacant storefronts and high worker and customer safety fears. Three days earlier, San Francisco voters had overwhelmingly voted to recall the District Attorney Chesa Boudin. The two events are closely related. <\/p>\n Of course, Boudin\u2019s policies are not solely responsible for San Francisco\u2019s empty and struggling business district. Other major factors have been in play\u2014the length and severity of the economic lockdowns in 2020-2021, the outsized role of tech and high-end white collar jobs in the local economy. But Boudin\u2019s policies significantly contributed to the situation. <\/p>\n Before the recall is forgotten it is worth saying a word about the relation of public safety and economic vitality, and the importance of addressing quality of life\/\u201cbroken windows\u201d crimes. It is also worth saying a word about the unusual coalition of workers, small business owners and employers that came together to topple Boudin. <\/p>\n Over the past three decades, I\u2019ve been a member of numerous advisory committees, on the state and regional levels, charged with developing a \u201cjobs strategy\u201d. Almost always these committees are looking for Brookings Institute-type ten-point programs that involve this-or-that tax credit, this-or-that technical assistance to small businesses, or some new government fund. But the fact is that in promoting economic vitality nothing is more important than the basics, of which ensuring public safety is at the top.<\/p>\n During more than two years in office, Boudin ignored the concerns of businesses, small and large, just as he ignored the concerns of ordinary residents. He came in with his ideology of \u201cprogressive criminal justice reform\u201d, and believed he knew more than victim rights advocates<\/a> and others who questioned him. Families of crime victims came away from meetings complaining that Boudin lectured them. Early on in the recall campaign, a NBC news report found 51 prosecutors, more than one third of the office, had either been fired or resigned in less than 2 years<\/a>. Two career prosecutors, Brooks Jenkins and Don Du Bain, spoke about their frustrations, and Jenkins came to play a prominent role in the recall campaign<\/a>. <\/p>\n Boudin even drove away natural allies, such as Randy Shaw, the longtime head of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and advocate for more than four decades for the city\u2019s homeless and low income residents. After Boudin pointedly refused to prosecute the open-air drug dealing in the Tenderloin area, Shaw came to support Boudin\u2019s recall<\/a>, as did other Tenderloin activists, including recovery expert Thomas Wolf,<\/a> who explained, \u201cFentanyl has killed hundreds of San Franciscans since Chesa Boudin took office, yet he hasn’t pursued a single felony drug dealing case. Instead, he sends dealers to drug courts, where they face little to no consequences and are able to get right back to selling on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite widespread dissatisfaction with Boudin\u2019s ideology, Boudin was not an easy official to bring down. For one, he was able to tap into the enormous reservoir of money supplied by uber-wealthy donors on the left, the majority of whom live outside of San Francisco. According to the Ethics Commission report a few weeks prior to the recall, Boudin had raised a staggering $3.3 million<\/a>, including $350,000 from the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California\u2014and the amount is likely to rise in the final accounting. <\/p>\n Additionally, Boudin had the support and resources of the local Democratic Party apparatus, which sent out and walked anti-recall flyers (linking the recall to Senator Mitch McConnell and to abortion opponents<\/a>). He benefited from the support of most of the city\u2019s elected officials, as well as a largely compliant local print media\u2014nearly all of whom actively opposed the recall.<\/p>\n The success of the recall in part was due to the funding it also was able to achieve<\/a>. But this funding would have meant nothing without the coalition of workers, ordinary citizens and businesses that were willing to stand up to Boudin and to the city\u2019s political and media establishment. <\/p>\n Boudin ran around the city denouncing the recall as led by Republicans, even though he knew this to be false (only 7% of San Francisco voters are registered Republicans<\/a>). He later switched to \u201cRepublican billionaires\u201d, which he continued up through the night of the election.<\/p>\n Boudin\u2019s claims fell flat because of the large number of middle class and working class residents who rallied to the recall, and volunteered in canvassing. As this map of the election results<\/a> shows, support of more than 60% for the recall came from the city\u2019s remaining working class districts, the multi-racial districts in the Excelsior, Visitacion Valley, and Portola. Support of over 70% came from the solidly middle class districts of the Sunset and Lake Merced.<\/p>\n
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